Sky Sports Loses Rights to Stream PGA Championship

While many British golf fans are amping up for the Open Championship coming up this month, not many are thinking yet about the PGA TOUR’s final major at Quail Hollow. Some members of the United Kingdom and Ireland, however, will soon find out that they may not be able to watch the PGA Championship.

It was recently announced that Sky Sports, the sports network that is popular over in the U.K. had lost its right to broadcast the PGA Championship. The Guardian reported that the 10-year deal that Sky Sports and the PGA of America had previously been working under expired and there were no plans to renew the deal at this time. That would mean the area the network covers would have no way to watch golf’s final major of the year.

“We had a good partnership with Sky but the 2017 US PGA Championship will not be on Sky. It was a multi-year deal that was up. Ultimately one of the key things for us is scale of distribution and obviously with all the new platforms that consumers are engaging with, we want to make sure we reach all of them,” Jeff Price, chief commercial officer for the PGA of America, said.

View of Jimmy Walker with the Wanamaker Trophy after winning tournament on Sunday at Baltusrol GC. Jesse Reiter TK5 ) Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

There is hope for Sky Sports viewers, however, as Price hinted that he is working on a deal to cover the affected areas in the U.K. and Ireland but would not say if that coverage would be live or broadcast through a different network. U.S. viewers, however, will not have to worry about having coverage as they will be able to watch the Quail Hollow action on TNT and CBS.

This is a major development for the golf community, especially the PGA TOUR being that they have been attempting to spread coverage of the game. And the fact that the United Kingdom and Ireland have arguably the same or more interest in golf as the United States, many citizens will be upset for having to miss a major championship.

Hopefully, a solution will be worked out soon for PGA TOUR fans across the pond but for now, they will have to find a new way to stream the 2017 PGA Championship.